260 



NOTICES OF AUTHORS, 



" In like manner, in all the other relations, we 

 see Nature especially accommodating the character 

 of each individual plant, to the exigencies of its par- 

 ticular situation. In the interior of woods, the 

 wind can exert a far less mechanical effect on indi- 

 vidual trees ; and therefore, while they Vixe positively 

 determined to push upwards towards the light, they 

 are negatively permitted to do so, by the removal of 

 any necessity to thicken their trunks, for the sake 

 of greater strength, and to contract the height of 

 them, in order to afford the blast a shorter lever 

 against the roots. But, with trees in an open situa- 

 tion, all this is widely different. There they are 

 freely exposed to the wind, and the large expansion 

 of their branches, gives every advantage to the vio- 

 lence of the storm. Nature, accordingly, bestows 

 greater proportional thickness, and less proportional 

 elevation on trees, which are isolated, or nearly so ; 

 while their system of root, which, by necessity, is 

 correlatively proportional to their system of top, af- 

 fords likewise heavier ballast, and a stronger anchor- 

 age, in order to counteract the greater spread of sail, 

 displayed in the wider expansion of the branches. 



" Every individual tree is thus a beautiful system 

 of qualities, specially relative to the place which it 

 holds in creation ; of provisions admirably accommo- 



